Franko Simatović u sudnici Tribunala

The Trial Chamber with Dutch judge Orie presiding found that the prosecution had called enough evidence, which, if uncontested, would allow the judges to convict the former Red Berets commander, Franko Simatovic. Simatovic’s Rule 98 bis motion for his acquittal at the half-time of the trial was rejected today. Simatovic and the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic, are charged with the crimes committed by the Serb police and paramilitary units in the wars in Croatia and BH. Jovica Stanisic’s defense didn’t file a motion for acquittal at this stage of the trial.

The Trial Chamber also noted that sufficient evidence was called to allow ‘a reasonable judge’ to conclude that the crimes of persecution, murder, deportation and forcible transfer of non-Serbs from the territory of the so-called SAO Krajina, Eastern Slavonia and BH municipalities of Zvornik, Samac, Doboj, Sanski Most and Trnovo were indeed committed. Those crimes contain elements of persecution inasmuch as they were committed with a discriminatory intent, to cleanse those areas of non-Serbs. Particularly relevant in this regard is the demographic evidence called by the prosecution, showing that 220,000 Croats were expelled from Krajina and Eastern Slavonia in 1991 alone. The number of Muslims in the relevant BH municipalities dropped by more than 95 percent.

According to the evidence called by the prosecution, those who committed persecution, deportation and forcible transfer included the units established, trained, funded and in other ways supported by the Serbian State Security Service; the two accused played an active role in the effort. Those units included ‘Arkan’s men’, ‘Martic’s men’, ‘Scorpions’ and the unit known variously as ‘Frenki’s men’, ‘Red Berets’, ‘Anti-Terrorist Unit’ and the ‘Special Operations Unit’. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that the head of that unit was Franko Simatovic and that its members were later involved in the establishment and training of the Krajina and Bosnian Serb special units that committed crimes against Croats and Muslims, the judges said.

As the judges say in their decision, a conclusion that may be drawn from this is that Simatovic was a participant in the joint criminal enterprise and contributed to the implementation of its goal to forcibly and permanently eliminate non-Serbs from large parts of Croatia and BH. As regards the evidence of the existence of the joint criminal enterprise, the Trial Chamber referred to the meetings Jovica Stanisic had with Milosevic, Karadzic, Mladic and other Serb political and military officials. The Trial Chamber also took into account Stanisic’s telephone conversation with Radovan Karadzic and his correspondence with Milan Martic in which they discussed the unification of all Serb territories and the expulsion of non-Serbs from there. As the judges stressed, the evidence shows there was close coordination between Stanisic and Simatovic in the relevant period.

The Trial Chamber therefore concluded that ‘there are grounds for Simatovic’s defense to call evidence’: the prosecution has called evidence that must be contested. According to the current schedule, the trial will continue on 14 June 2011 with a pre-defense conference and then Jovica Stanisic’s defense case will begin with the opening statement the next day, on 15 June 2011.

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